Jay, I'm curious to know more about the origins of the modern "chemtrail" myth. I know there have been various cases of mass hysteria surrounding contrails during the cold war, that some suspected contrails being chemical warfare from the Soviets, but I have got the impression that somewhere around late 90s this notion took new dimensions, except that the culprit was changed to the US government, or "them". But can it all be traced back to an actual attempt to scam paranoid people into buying products that are said to cure the symptoms of alleged conspiracy?
You mention Richard Sacks in that broadcast, was he one of the front runners of this scam? I still see fresh articles under that name on geoengineeringwatch.org, crazy if the same guy is still going at it.
I don't know much about Richard Sacks, except that among the Wigington group he is the most extreme and the most likely to be involved with something dangerous. In the broadcast I probably said Richard Finke, who I credit with starting the hoax.
He passed away a couple of years ago.
In 2000, I did some checking into the origins of the chemtrails hoax and this is what I found:
http://goodsky.homestead.com/files/evolution.html
As you heard in the broadcast, and I quote on the above link, when I asked him about details of the original email, he tried to end the questions by concocting a story:
"AJ, in response to your journalistic inquiry concerning 'heavy
contrails' I am taking the liberty of forwarding to you some e-mailing
on the subject. The analysis of the sprayed cocktail of JP-8 and EDB
was reportedly done by one particular lab here in Ohio. The info
sources are reputedable but there was a strong denial by the lab
itself. Interestingly the lab does a lot of business with governmental
agencies. Their contract losses would be significant to a lot of people
whose livelihoods depend on them. There was also the threat of legal
litigation. Thus I vouch for the veracity of the report's scientific
info but must remain silent concerning the lab itself. Please
understand and cooperate. In this regard it is helpful to me that the
reported phone number and name of the lab are not accurate. Also, there
were about seven men who died nastily getting this information out.
Accordingly we must comport ourselves respectfully, respectfully of
those men and ourselves.
I hope this answers to your inquiry, Thank you, /s/Ric"
Finke spent almost all of his life in a wheelchair, afflicted with arthritis. As a child, he was an "Easter Seals" poster boy in his area.
I think Finke was a mild mannered socially awkward guy easily influenced by his association with Larry Wayne Harris to concoct the story, and the other founders I cite all pointed fingers at Harris when asked.
From that point, the meme progressed with contributions by others.
It might interest some to see one of the very first chemtrail websites, dates back to May 1999, when the term "chemtrails" had just been coined:
http://strangehaze.freeservers.com/
Lots of links there which are dead, but which might be archive at the
Internet Archive.org
This is perhaps one of the first message boards related to chemtrails:
https://web.archive.org/web/2000112...wBoard&Board=free&Idle=&Sort=&Order=&Session=